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By Mark Halper, The Business, London
Apr. 23--Silicon Valley-based Sling Media is to sell a set-top box in Europe that lets people watch their home country's television programming anywhere in the world.
The company's Slingbox redirects regular at-home television programmes to a viewer's PC, laptop or mobile phone screen. Slingbox has received rave reviews in the US since Sling started offering it there last summer for $250 (£140, E203). Street prices are about $200.
The Slingbox was a surprise star at the recent MipTV broadcasting conference in Cannes, where broadcasters and producers come to buy and sell programmes.
Sling Media chief executive Blake Krikorian said he would soon start selling Slingbox in Europe and Asia, but did not give a specific time frame.
Sources expect the box to arrive in the UK and other countries by next month. Besides high street sales, one possibility would be for Sling to offer co-branded Slingboxes with pay-TV companies, broadcasters or other media companies.
Krikorian trumpeted Slingbox as a "place shifter" that "frees our TV from the confines of the living room".
His financial backers include Liberty Media, the media and cable company owned by John Malone, and Echostar, the US satellite TV provider that competes with Rupert Murdoch's DirecTV. Along with Goldman Sachs, Liberty and Echostar led a $46.6m investment round in January.
Krikorian showed off the box on the conference's main stage after staying up all night to watch a US broadcast of a basketball championship game, delivered by his Slingbox in California to his room in France. He also showed home videos of himself watching an American football game "slung" to a mobile phone while he was attending his daughter's school play.
The Slingbox raises rights questions, because viewers will be able to watch programmes in countries where the broadcaster does not have rights to show them. But Krikorian pointed out that the Slingbox does not allow the widespread distribution of programmes. Rather, it simply extends the geographic territory in which a single viewer can watch.
Recalling the controversy over video cassette recorders, Kirkorian noted "we were one vote away" from a US Supreme Court ruling that "would have killed the VCR".
Although US reviewers have been kind to the Slingbox, they note that it's not always easy to set up. The user has to connect the Slingbox to his television's satellite or cable set-top box on one end, and to an internet router on the other.
They then have to download software to their viewing devices. Additionally, PCs and laptops require a broadband connection, and the mobile version works best with phones that have 3G or wi-fi reception.
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